AP CSP: Finding a Data Story

Introduction: Throughout this unit we have been collecting data about ourselves in the hope that we’ll be able to find some interesting trends and patterns in that data. Today we’re going to finally be able to take a close look at the data we’ve collected. Your job will be to use your new skills at cleaning, summarizing, and visualizing data to “tell a story” using the data we collected. We hope that, with so many different perspectives in the class, a lot of interesting stories on the same dataset will emerge.

Identify a Data Story: With your copies of the data that we’ve been collecting about ourselves you are now going to summarize and visualize your data, looking for an interesting story to tell. Use the tools you have used with Google Spreadsheets to identify an interesting trend, pattern, or relationship within their data. There’s no need to tell a complex story. Simple relationships are still valuable to understand. The absence of a trend or pattern can still be interesting. If the amount of sleep you get doesn’t have a clear impact on mood, that’s interesting to know.

Strategies to Identify a Data Story: Dig into the data! Use your skills for data manipulation to find connections and trends.  Remember the skills you have for doing discovery: Sort data Rearrange columns Filter Make summary (pivot) tables Use charts and visuals for discovery You can look at previous lessons in code studios to experiment with how to create summary tables and different types of charts and graphs. You may want to consider creating Summary Tables from the raw data and then create visualizations from the summary table data.

Visualize your Data Story: You may want to refer to  Data Visualization 101 guide for tips on how to make clear visualizations. Your chart will have accompanying explanations, but it should be able to “stand on its own” to communicate the story students have found. Some things you may want to consider when creating visualizations A fancy chart may actually be worse than a simple and clear one. Creating multiple charts is totally appropriate if they will better communicate the story. Experiment with different chart types. The chart type used to discover the story may not actually be the best one for visualizing the story.

Visualize your Data Continued: Refer back to the lessons in code studio to learn about different visualization techniques you can use. You will need to design a data visualization that clearly communicates the data story you found. Make your visualization clear and easy to read. In some instances, a simple table may be a better way to show your data than a chart. Use text along with your visual to help explain your data story. If you need to use too much text, however, ask yourself if there’s a better way to visualize it. Data Visualizations 101 http://content.visage.co/hs-fs/hub/424038/file-2094950163-pdf

Written Responses: Apart of your assignment is also to respond to the prompts in the packet given to you. Note there is a recommended word count for each prompt you must respond to. There is 4 separate prompts to respond to for your written response Make sure your responses satisfy everything the prompt is expecting

Deliverables: You will need to submit your visualization and written responses electronically Submit your written responses and your visualization in PDF format. Write your responses in a word file and paste your visualization to the same word file. You will name your file “yourname_StoryData.pdf” yourname is actually your real name. This assignment is due by next class. You will be working on this assignment for the rest of the class. Complete for homework whatever you don’t finish in class Submission instructions will be given to you next class Refer to the rubric given in your packet to understand how you will be graded for this assignment,